Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

Hector curled his lip in disdain; as people age, their skin loosens. The expression itself might not be particularly intimidating, but the way he made it seemed exceptionally cold.

“You filthy traitor, you scum who makes a living by your tongue. You betrayed my nephew, Tuku Zolael, and then joined the gang of our enemies. For this alone, I would not be too much to cut you into a thousand pieces.”

Jimmy took a deep breath; in fact, this level of threat and harsh words was exactly what he had expected.

We must never let ourselves lose the initiative!

"Since you haven't taken away my livelihood yet, I dare to guess that you still have questions for me."

"please."

Even with so many people watching, even saying the wrong thing could pose a terrible risk. But if you went along with Hector's words, you would almost certainly die.

In situations like this, the only one who can seek a chance to survive is oneself.

"I'm sure you've noticed that Zolael is absent from this meeting. With a formidable enemy at hand, we need you to confirm this member's allegiance." Laro's tone was extremely calm, as if he had transcended all positions and identities. His gaze was fixed on the distant void as he, speaking in the third person, fulfilled his duty at this meeting without a trace of emotion.

"You're a smart person, you should know that in this kind of situation... you have, and only one chance, so don't say anything you shouldn't say, do you understand what I mean?"

Jimmy slightly raised his head.

The tone was normal.

The sound is normal.

His eyes, body language, micro-expressions... everything was normal, even a little too calm, like a wooden puppet wearing human skin.

But somehow, Jimmy was certain that he had truly understood what he meant.

“Igorinacio Zolael, [the Mule], the man you call 'Igor',” Laro paused, then asked calmly, “is he a member of the Red Center Gang?”

……

"What a joke." After a brief silence, Jimmy grinned and said, "You think the Red Center gang are all idiots? What use is a dwarf who can't shoot a gun or ride a horse? To watch him perform in the circus?"

His words immediately caused a huge uproar, with the most common word being "liar," especially shouted by a group of young people led by Eugene. Most people already had a conclusion about Igor's identity, but wanted to confirm it publicly so they could openly and honestly settle accounts with him.

Jimmy's denial has undoubtedly made him a target of public criticism.

Hector's eyelids twitched slightly, and he pursed his lips as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't speak. He just continued to look down at Jimmy with a venomous and sinister gaze.

“One thing at a time, kid,” he said menacingly. “Let’s leave Igor’s matter here and settle something else. You betrayed my nephew, the poor boy’s father, who’s sitting right next to me. Don’t you think I owe him an explanation?”

Byron Riz Zolael.

This old man, even more somber than Hector, had remained motionless and expressionless since the beginning. Had he not spoken, Jimmy would have thought he was a dressed mummy sitting there.

“Ha, ha, betrayal…” Jimmy laughed self-deprecatingly at first, then asked, “How so? Do you think I strangled Tuku to death?”

"You betrayed his information to Red China!" Eugene slammed his fist on the table and roared, "He's dead, but you survived and even joined the Red China gang. That's the proof!"

“Forgive me, young man, but do you really understand stock photography?” Jimmy turned around and asked slowly, as if he were in a courtroom.

"What do you think?" Eugene retorted with a sneer. "Do I need a reminder of my last name?"

“Of course I know that Tuku is your relative, and perhaps he is a different person when facing younger relatives… But do you really know what he is like when he is ‘working’?” Jimmy put the word “working” in quotation marks, which is ironic in itself, as it refers to arson, murder, and looting as a job.

"It's no exaggeration to say that if someone were to betray him one day, it would be far from me; I'd probably have to wait in line."

Based on the principle that if he didn't speak now, he might never have the chance to speak again, Jimmy's speech became radical, as if he wanted to vent all the anger he had suffered at the hands of the Thunder Gang over the years. "If every person who hates him stabs him in the back, the line will stretch until next year."

"This guy is practically a microcosm of your Zolael family. A bastard who's about to be abandoned by history, yet he's completely oblivious and still trying to show off to others."

……

"Damn it! Kill him!"

"How dare he speak disrespectfully to someone from the family! How can we tolerate this? Laro, let me shoot him!"

"Go to hell! Even if you die, the family will never fall!"

"Tear his tongue out!"

……

Needless to say, these words sparked a heated debate. As the saying goes, in the eyes of gang members, there's no such thing as "leaving a job and switching sides." If you've done something for us once, you're obligated to keep doing it for us; otherwise, you're a traitor.

Jimmy didn't expect them to understand; he placed his only hope on the higher-ups of the Zola El family.

Although it's true that those above influence those below, and the behavior of those below is likely due to the same shortcomings of those above, let's just pray for now...

Hector, Byron, and Lalo—if even one of these three could understand what I was saying.

----

“I’ve had enough of these nobody’s clamor.” Hector’s slender face was cold and indifferent. He picked at his ear and said in a shrill, hoarse voice, “You’re finished! Your hands are covered in blood, and it won’t last! God will punish you!…caw caw ...

"When a stray dog ​​is about to die, it often says this. Either it's God, or it's a deity... Ha, they don't even consider that God created the ancestors of mankind in his image, right? Well then, just look at me and you'll know what God himself looks like."

Hector wore a contemptuous smile; it was clear that he was the kind of person who never cared about cause and effect.

"It's not bad to treat their wails as snacks with drinks."

Hector slowly stood up. "I'm telling you, the Zolael family will always exist. We will cut off your head and preserve your skull so you can witness it with your own eyes."

……

"Who said anything about God?"

At that moment, Jimmy seemed to break free from some kind of constraint, raising his head and looking at the local tyrant with utter contempt and mockery. It was as if, in an instant, he had transformed from the mighty Zola El into an insignificant mongrel.

Cognition determines everything.

Many things are decided in a very short time once the other party's level of understanding is determined.

Hector was stung by that look; he gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"God does not punish people, or rather, He only punishes good people, making them feel uneasy, that's all."

"But the market, the market... will punish you, punish every one of you."

Jimmy suddenly asked, "Is cotton the crop that's currently the most abundant in your plantation?"

----

“Go on,” Laro said, sitting up straight.

Chapter 367: I am a god in a suit, lightning flashing from my fingertips!

"Why?" Jimmy liked people who were particularly ambitious and willing to talk to him, so he threw out a question directly, "Why do you grow cotton?"

The question seemed ridiculous, which drew laughter from everyone, especially Eugene, who was doubled over with laughter.

Because to most people, after all that buildup, to come up with just this one question is just ridiculous, like farting.

But Laro didn't laugh; instead, he frowned and began to think quickly. Lately, he had been busy negotiating arms deals in Mexico, and hadn't devoted much attention to his business back home.

“I thought you were going to ask something else,” Hector sneered. “Of course, we plant whatever makes money. If we don’t plant cotton, are we supposed to plant watermelons?”

"Growing cotton is profitable because there is demand. It's because Europeans invented the steam engine and the spinning machine, which greatly increased efficiency. For example, if you used to need 10 tons of cotton, now you need 100 tons. This 90-ton shortfall has to be filled by people... The whole south used to grow cotton simply because it met this demand, that's all!"

Although Jimmy was still looking up at them, after saying those words, he had subtly gained the upper hand in terms of momentum.

Most of the Zolaers were speechless; they weren't even proficient in basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division up to 100. They were completely unaware of what was happening in Europe, thousands of miles away, including Hector.

Since everyone grows cotton and gets rich, I might as well grow it too—that's roughly the mentality.

"It was probably around 1840, when the shortage was at its greatest and cotton farming was the most profitable. You were lucky to be there at that time."

"But come on... it's 1879 now, almost 40 years have passed, are your brains still stuck forty years ago?"

“These days, other countries don’t lack cotton at all, and their markets aren’t limited to just this one place. Egypt, India, Brazil, and other countries, big and small, can all provide the same service, and at a lower price than you. At this point, you’re still frantically growing cotton. Who are you going to sell it to?”

"In the end, they all just rot in your hands."

“Have you ever been to the North, Mr. Zolael? The industry there is quite advanced—shipbuilding, textiles, more and more factories, machinery, and railways… connecting the world more and more closely. Many black slaves have escaped to the North because they couldn’t bear the burden. Believe me, when the railway reaches this point, this phenomenon will become more and more frequent.”

“You can’t hide in this remote mountain valley forever. One day, people will discover this outdated, primitive, barbaric, and blood-stained sinful town.”

Jimmy smiled, stretched out his hands, and shook his fingers, making the "flirting" gesture he used when he was relaxed in court.

“Let me say something else, Mr. Zolael… you and your family are actually not as important as you think.”

"You are nothing more than a plantation farmer who is about to be swept away by the tide of the times and left stranded on the beach, nothing more."

……

Hector's expression had lost its previous composure; clearly, Jimmy's words were far more lethal than those of the other believers. He considered pulling out his gun and shooting him, but then felt it would be pointless.

Even if you kill him, the facts he pointed out will not disappear; they will only become more glaring.

Unless one can replace these words with a pair of ears that have never heard them before, all actions will appear to be a desperate outburst after a breakdown.

This is not just his feeling.

When Jimmy used detailed language to point out the insignificance of the Zola El family in the face of historical events, everyone felt this sense of powerlessness.

So what if they win against Red Center? This family is destined to be washed away like a bubble in the face of an increasingly fast-paced world.

Given their culture, they racked their brains but couldn't come up with any rebuttal, so they were left in an awkward silence, staring at each other.

"Miss Amy!" Laro noticed the change in atmosphere, beckoned to the inconspicuous girl who had been standing in the corner, "I'd like to trouble you to take our 'big star' to the dungeon and get him something to eat. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just enough to keep him breathing."

"..."

We won!!

Jimmy secretly breathed a sigh of relief and, with the air of a victor, strode away from the oppressive hall under the watchful eyes of this group of vicious men.

The so-called dungeon refers to a dark, cold, and damp stone chamber built on the lower level of the mansion. The good news is that it's all single rooms, and apart from the skeletons on the floor, there are no annoying roommates to disturb the peace. So far, only the rotting ones inside, surrounded by stone on all sides, have made escape impossible, so there's no need for guards.

But even in such a terrible place, Jimmy felt incredibly fortunate.

It's better than getting your head chopped off.

"Hoo... For a moment, I wondered what was going to happen..." Jimmy lay flat on the haystack in the dungeon, his limbs outstretched, as if his bones had been removed.

Having survived the ordeal, cold sweat poured down his forehead, and he felt as if he had lost a significant amount of weight.

"Um, miss, I know I was very charming just now, and you might want to ask me for an autograph, but... could you leave me alone for a while?"

Jimmy rolled over, looked at the girl standing outside the prison, and regained some of his carefree demeanor. He took a business card from his jacket pocket and handed it through a gap in the bars.

"Give me Jimmy. Remember that? If you ever have any legal problems, remember to hire me! There's only winning, no losing."

……

Amy hesitated for a moment, then accepted the business card and looked at him with a very strange expression.

"How did you know all that just now?"

"What do you mean?" Jimmy took off his boots, threw them aside, and used the hay as a pillow and his suit jacket as a blanket to cover himself.

"Cotton, the economy, crops, Europe, textile machinery, shipyards and railways in the north... and so many other things, how do you know all this?"

"Haha, kid." Jimmy pointed to the swift rapier hanging at Amy's waist. "What's this?"

“My weapon.” Amy instinctively gripped the hilt of the sword. “Rancho taught me how to kill with it.”

Does this sword need sharpening?

“Of course, except for blunt weapons, all cold weapons need to be sharpened.” Amy looked puzzled. “What’s the question?”

“Now I’ll tell you…” Jimmy pointed to his head, “My brain is like your sword, and information is my whetstone.”

"Use all useful information, including laws, books, newspapers, conversations of important people, and snippets of conversation in the market. Think it over before making a decision. That's how it works."

“You should do the same, child. This sword won’t be with you for a lifetime, but knowledge resides in your mind.”

"Once you've learned it, you've learned it. Nobody can take it away from you."

Chapter 368: The Highest Level: Mobilizing the Enemy!

"I've never seen such an exquisite sand table before."

Red Fox bent down, carefully examining the objects on the table; it was probably no longer a simple "sand table." He was a mercenary for the Golden Company, fighting for whoever paid him.

Most of the time, it's all in the dark. Once you get to the scene, you have to analyze and observe the terrain yourself. Especially in Mexico, which is poor, warfare is less formal. Even if you have maps, they are mostly hand-drawn and differ greatly from the actual terrain.

Even so, we should be thanking our God.

The thing before him was undoubtedly the most detailed map he had ever seen in his career—a three-dimensional sculpture perfectly replicating the terrain of Tianma Town and Rongma Town. Red Fox gently touched it; the cold, hard texture confirmed that it was carved from stone. At a glance, the details of the protrusions and depressions, with the Fortress Mountain Range as the boundary, were quite clear.

It's hard to imagine just how skilled the person who carved this thing must have been.